Wednesday, February 22, 2012

2.22.12

I did not make many friends yesterday, I will just let the few warning shots fly right past me as I walk the line with kid gloves on, but I did have an uplifting gift of a peace sign that I proudly display in the front window now... (Peace on Main.) Thank you, the silent ones.

Despite it all, I pray the effort by both sides to reach across will not be mocked and dismissed, I sincerely hope Mr. J. Taylor, Mr. Barta and Mr. Igielski become the positive change and voices of reason we need. I did have to defend HBR a few times that half of her article was edited out, but she did not make many friends yesterday neither. Even Switzerland is getting bombed these days.

There will be a media day next Monday for all the artists picked for Guitar Town. I have heard the bar was set pretty high from the selection committee and the selected artists will make Waukesha proud. I have also heard the May 31 VIP party will be a very big deal, the limited amount of tickets for this event will likely be in high demand. A lot of hard works are being done by volunteers in almost unreasonably short time, and the few "negative people" are not helping. ( That is you, Wiggy...) I do need to defend Wiggy a little, I think Wiggy is not going after the project itself but more in the New Day Fund/Mayor/BID/BID appointment aspect of it. Let's not have a rally cry of Wiggy is trying to kill Guitar Town... ( Still walking the line...) UPDATE: Wiggy is positive that he is not negative...

Moxie girls made their donation to The Women's Center yesterday and I was honored to go along for the photo op. We were given a tour and we were all surprised on how big the place is. We did not know they have such a large capacity for women in need and even a daycare. Waukesha Tattoo Company is very proud to help for this good cause, but all the credits really should go to the Moxie girls.

Before the whole downtown stressed out to the max, I like to point out that we have Massage Therapy by Chelsea on Thursdays and Acupuncture by Robin on Fridays but you have to wait until after my appointments with both... ;)

UPDATE: Little bird said CC did not officially approve Guitar Town for some reason, contrary to what is being said on FB, I guess more news is to come...

6 comments:

Who cares where the search firm is from because none of them is really in tune with what Waukesha wants at this time. Now that they are hired it is the Council’s job to tell them what we need. Vorhees probably just did a google search on Waukesha and Administrator and found out what the issue is, that hardly makes them special. A 10 year old could do that.

It doesn’t matter if they are form Florida, they will ferret out candidates just as well as a firm from Wisconsin or Illinois would because that is what we are hiring them to do. The question I would have is if you are so obsessed with someone with Wisconsin experience why would you even waste money on a search firm. Why not at least try a free ad in the League of Wisconsin municipalities publication and website and see what happens. There may be a City Administrator with experience in Wisconsin that is looking to move up to another city and this person may be completely overlooked by a search firm. I’ll bet you get 30 resumes within a month.

Here is the issue I have with search firms. They are kind of a waste of money in this digital age and they end up costing the City more money because instead of just posting an ad and attracting people that want that job they go out and find people that may or may not be looking. That puts them in the driver’s seat when salary and benefit negotiations begin. “Oh well I love my job here in Minnesota so you need to pay me 20 grand more than you wanted to and you have to pay relocation costs”

Given that the average tenure of a City Administrator is probably 5 years, it seems absurd to spend so much money finding one.

I think they're hoping that the search firm will tell them what they want to hear as far as job parameters and reporting structure. Also, a search firm helps insulate the process from El Jefe.

By the way, I like GuitarTown as a concept and hope it succeeds. The biggest threat to GuitarTown isn't me, or Vicky Hekkers, or Jeff Barta, or Shawn Reilly, or even a Koolfool blogger asking questions. The biggest threat is Jeff Scrima.

I think Darryl hit on some of the issues with this attempted rebranding downtown as “Guitar Town” It is going to be a great thing this year and I think the guitars will be a great addition to the City. This project should rightfully be a great source of civic pride, but Waukesha isn't really a music mecca by any stretch.

Sure you have the BoDeans who are pretty much broken up but they were hardly pioneers of any sort. I don’t think any A&R folks are hanging out at Bodways or Magellan’s seeking out the next big thing. I also don’t buy that tourists are going to come to Waukesha just to look at guitars. I think it would be have been a better idea to wait until the Les Paul Exhibit was open and tie it all together in one giant summer of music, but nobody wants to wait for anything, which has resulted in this expedited timeline that has everyone on edge downtown while the rest of us just wish everyone could work together and get this crap approved and ready to go. Why the rush to do it this year?

I think we should be cautious of putting all of our eggs in this Guitar Town basket. The guitar/music aspect can be a part of branding but it would be misleading to try to tell tourists we are really a “Guitar Town,” when we cannot even muster enough support to open a museum exhibit to honor the only reason Gibson even considered Waukesha.

I will be curious to see what kind of acts they get for the June 1 opening. I also wonder if this will be an exclusive event that is so expensive that nobody can afford to go or if it will be something great like the free concerts at Cutler Park for the Harley 105th. Lets hope it’s the latter.

I know it will get you on the naughty list if you dare question any aspect of Guitar Town (I support it 100 percent) but I think there are legitimate questions about the secrecy, the rushing through, and what the ultimate goal is (rebranding?). It seems to me that Guitar Town is the Tim Tebow of Waukesha. You cannot question any of it for fear of being branded a hater (or a troublemaker).